Essex young people make their mark

Posted on Thursday 25th April Make Your Mark is an opportunity for 11-18 year olds across the UK to have their say and vote on the issues they want to change. This year ten issues were presented to young people, and they had between 29 January and 8 March 2024 to vote on which of the issues were most important to them. More than 35,000 young people in Essex participated in this year’s Make Your Mark, which was led in Essex by the Young Essex Assembly and the Essex Youth Service. This 35,000 represents a 26% turnout from the 11-18 year old demographic and within this number were contributions from 75 Essex schools and 90 youth groups. For Essex young people the top three issues were:

• Health and Wellbeing
• Jobs, the economy and benefits
• Crime and safety

You can view the full report here The results of Make Your Mark will influence hundreds of projects and campaigns, led by young people - for young people - across the UK.  In Essex, this means understanding a bit more about what these results mean, which is why Essex Youth Service will be doing a further piece of work to delve into the reasoning behind the results and develop positive solutions to these issues. This will be a co-production piece of work with young people with the aim to provide context to the county wide results. On a national level Members of the UK Youth Parliament will campaign and research the leading topics, to influence the UK Parliament and their local representatives, ensuring that the views of young people are listened to by decision makers.